Dr. Jerry Falwell

This sad death of a true Fundamentalist Saint
is also being noted in the following safe place
for Fundamentalists to post:

http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=39754

 

Right here. Every bit as principled and honorable as was Larry Flynt when he published the satirical interview which had Falwell say that his first sex was with his own mother while drunk in an outhouse.

 

Jerry Falsell will be missed.

One of the things that the news media is missing is what I think was JF biggest impact on the United States. Until the Moral Majority, the Southern Christians voted Democratic primarily as a result of the Civil War and FDR. Jf pointed out to the South that when they send Democrats to Washington, they supported the Liberal Democrats (abortion and homosexuals) which was against the morality on the South (Baptist and other Christians). The Republican Party saw an opportunity and joined JF against abortion and homosexuality and the South went Republican. Jf was probably the one most responsible for that happening, IMO.

 

(This was from the thread which was closed)


Yes, I was listening to a Christian radio station at lunch when they gave the news. One of the hosts noted she had viewed some of the things immediately posted on liberal websites and that it was terrible.


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I noted numerous posts on BB in disagreeing with Falwell's involvement with politics, or maybe it was to much for some. I however would like to applaud him for it! :applause::applause:


Because he did much to awaken evangelical Christians with the importance in getting involved with the political process. Not to mention working diligently to help God loving men, versus God hating atheists, into public positions.

As without such, there would never be any hope of changing abortion practices, promiscuity, or standing up to other immoral attitudes as homosexuality. It is easy to talk about such things, but it is something else in actually taking a stand for God against such. It is easy to say abortion is horribly wrong, but it is another thing in getting down and dirty in actually trying to change it. Such as Falwell and other Christian leaders have done. No he was not perfect but he never feared in speaking our Lords truth. The Lord has called him home and now he can truly rejoice.




I thank God for men such as Falwell. I pray for his family and ministry.:jesus:

 

Also see here and here.

 

Wow! I did not even hear about this, as I am just getting in from work.
People were just talking about him in Politics, where a debate erupted about "Fundamentalist Leaders" (actually a spinoff of a discussion on Giuliani and the presidential race).

He was one person, who could still say something and get in trouble with the gays in pop culture, but had moderated his approach a lot, and at one point was trying to be nicer to them.

 

Falwell, symbol of Religious Right's influence and excesses, dead at 73

http://www.abpnews.com/www/2153.article

Falwell, symbol of Religious Right's influence and excesses, dead at 73
By Robert Marus
Published: May 15, 2007

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- Jerry Falwell, the pastor, university founder and media impresario who received both credit and blame for making the Religious Right a political force in American politics, is dead at age 73.

According to multiple news reports, Falwell was found dead in his office at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., the morning of May 15 and was taken to a local hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

Falwell had two significant health scares in 2005, after which doctors treated him for cardiac problems.

Falwell was perhaps the most widely known Southern Baptist pastor, but early in his ministry he was an independent Baptist. Starting with 35 people meeting in a Lynchburg elementary school in 1956, Falwell built Thomas Road Baptist Church into one of the nation's largest congregations. He and the church also founded Liberty University, a prominent evangelical Christian university, in 1971. According to the Lynchburg News & Advance, the school expects to enroll more than 11,000 students next fall.

Although as recently as the 1960s Falwell -- like many fundamentalist Protestant leaders of his time -- criticized more moderate and liberal ministers for getting involved in the civil-rights movement and other contemporary political debates, but he had changed his mind by the 1970s. In 1979, he founded the Moral Majority -- widely credited with helping elect Ronald Reagan to his first term and, for the first time, organizing conservative evangelical voters in a nationwide activist organization.

The organization attempted to unify conservative Christians to vote for candidates who opposed legalized abortion and civil protections for homosexuals, and who supported government endorsements of religion.

Even though the group disbanded in 1989, Falwell continued to exert influence among conservative Christians and in the Republican Party, cementing the partnership between the two groups that dominated American politics for more than 20 years.

Throughout his involvement in politics, Falwell received heavy criticism from liberals and secularists -- and also from other Christian leaders who believed his goals and methods were inimical to the gospel they claimed to serve.

In one of his most infamous public gaffes, he was forced to apologize for his televised comments that blamed the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on gays, abortion-rights activists, atheists, liberals and civil libertarians.

Still, even one of Falwell's arch-adversaries acknowledged his towering presence in American civic life in recent decades.

"Jerry Falwell politicized religion and failed to understand the genius of our Constitution, but there is no denying his impact on American political life," said Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in a statement released shortly after Falwell's death was announced.

The statement concluded, "Americans United extends its condolences to members of Dr. Falwell's family, the congregants of Thomas Road Baptist Church and the students and staff of Liberty University."

Meanwhile, Falwell's co-belligerents in the "culture wars" of the past two decades mourned his passing.

"For more than 50 years, Dr. Falwell has been an uncompromising ambassador for the gospel in the community of Lynchburg, nationally via the broadcast airwaves, and in American public life," said a statement from Coral Ridge Ministries, the broadcast arm of conservative Presbyterian preacher D. James Kennedy. "He leaves an enduring legacy of leadership for the gospel, Christian education, and Christian moral engagement in American public life."

Falwell, a Lynchburg native, was born in 1933 to a devoutly Christian mother and a father who, Falwell said, was an entrepreneur dismissive of his wife's faith. The younger Falwell was reportedly something of a ne'er-do-well himself, but he embraced his mother's faith in 1952 while attending a local college.

He professed his faith at a local Baptist church and completed his undergraduate education at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo. Falwell became involved in the independent Baptist movement while there and remained an independent Baptist most of his life. However, in the 1990s he led his church to affiliate with the Southern Baptist Convention through the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, a new state convention formed by fundamentalists disgruntled with the moderate leadership of the established Baptist General Association of Virginia.

Although Falwell and his followers often used the courtesy title "Dr." before his name, he never earned a doctorate.

He stepped down from his day-to-day duties as pastor of the Thomas Road congregation, turning them over to one of his sons to focus on his work for the university. He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, the former Macel Pate, and three children.

 

Feel free to join one of the 5 existing discussions on this matter.

Finding them is left as an exercise for the student ...

Well, I'll do it for you until my right to edit expires.

In the same Forum, this one has two forwarding addresses:

http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=39748&page=3

 

Jerry Falwell

I agree very much with most of his message, and his works. But have questions with the way things are working out with his passing. Pres. Godwin has announced that his Sons are now in charge of everything and pledges his loyalty to them. This reveals (to me) a very carnal set up. Nepotism, at it's worst. How do you inherit a real church? You inherit a family business. Where are the members voices, those that have given millions to build the "work"? Are the members "merchandise" that can be left to his sons? The members political vote was up for sale years ago. Does anyone know who's on the Board of Directors and the voting set up? When the Board approved the business to purchase a Gulf Stream private Jet for Jerry it revealed the Board as a sham. I don't think members ever really comprehended that a Gulf Stream IV cost about $40 million dollars. Even the Gulf Stream 1,2,3 cost many, many, millions. Not to mention the cost of a Pilot, Co-pilot, maintenance and as much as $30,000 an hour to operate. Who knows the cost on maintenance? If Jerry had 50 Rolls Royces in a garage the members would have been appalled. Ordinary people associate the expense of a "plane" with a "car" and televangelist can get by with it. Pretty disingenious to ask for the widows mite and spend multiple millions on a perk. But the Gulfstream easily cost much more than 50 Rolls Royces. Who owns LU? Who owns the stock of the corporation? Those that don't support his sons or see these things from the inside- will their heads roll?? I suspect so. These are the questions the members and contributors should ask. Just my opinion, but I lived through this in an earlier church I attended. Not all churches are churches, some are businesses. I learned that the hard way.

 

==No news here. Jonathan Falwell, and Dr. Falwell's other sons, have been very active in the past few years. It has been widely known that Jonathan Falwell would take over as pastor when his father passed. There is nothing carnal about that as long as TRBC approves and I'm more than certain that they approve (he is a great preacher, maybe better than his father). As for LU, there is an administration there and that will keep the school going. Nothing carnal here at all. Dr. Falwell planned things out very well and those plans will now go forward.

==I don't know much about that, but I do know that major public figures/university presidents (etc) often have private jets (etc). It allowed Falwell to go where he needed, when he needed (to do funerals, etc). It also avoided the problems that could come with Jerry Falwell flying on a commercial jet (though I suppose he did from time to time).

I think your comments here are overly critical.

==Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church are two different things. I imagine the jet was owned by Liberty University and not Thomas Road Baptist Church. As for who owns Liberty? I'm not sure. I know there was a big shake up several years ago when the last president left to take a position at Luther Rice. As I recall a team of men was set up to run the university.

You can find info on Liberty's administration team below:
http://www.liberty.edu/administration/index.cfm?PID=6911

Liberty's accreditation:
http://www.liberty.edu/administration/index.cfm?PID=284

Thanks to the hard work of Jerry Falwell, Liberty University is now the largest evangelical university in the United States. It offers young people, and adults, the chance to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees from a Bible believing, Bible teaching university.

 

Feel free to join one of the 5 existing discussions on this matter.

This one has two forwarding addresses:

http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=39748&page=3

 

Falwell

I listen to Jonathan every Sunday in the early service. When were the Members consulted about anything to do with succession? The inference that Thomas Road was a family business was being kind. The other alternative is it's it's a "personality cult" albeit a pretty benign one. Can you show me any legitimate church that has been handed down through a family? I can show you several cults and businesses that have been. As for LU, you and I both know that it was built on the monies from the church. A separate entity it is, but not in the minds of the faithful at Thomas Roads. I know this seems harsh, but I believe it to be accurate. As I grow older the biblical admonition about those that would "make merchandise" of the brethren seems more relevant today. I dislike business in the guise of a church, or the name of God.

 

It almost feels to me, as an outsider to the Thomas Road community, like a Baptist form of apostolic succession. I've never seen father to son succession like this in a church, but I know that Billy Graham and Oral Roberts have done the same thing. The Billy Graham organization has a quarter of a billion dollars in its coffers according to its most recent annual report. These huge ministries that have vast financial assets do bother me a bit, and when so much money is at stake I'm sure there's a feeling that develops to "keep it in the family". I cannot say for sure whether anything ungodly is occuring or not, but it certainly makes me uneasy.

I have no problem with ministries who take in a lot of money and then spend a lot of money spreading the gospel and otherwise doing the Lord's work. Feed the Children might be such an organization. The ones that bother me are the ones that amass a huge hoard of money. I don't believe God calls anyone to sit on a hoard of money, and I don't think the givers of the money intend for it to build up a big stash of cash that sits in investments to earn income rather than being spent to spread the gospel.

Money has far to much of a capacity to corrupt. And this father-to-son succession is unseemly in light of the vast financial resources being managed. It may be the case that the son is the best successor in a particular case. But it seems to be the standard model based on these three organizations at least. It leaves me with a somewhat brown taste in my mouth.

 

so mes228, can we expect a website from you with links to bellevue, fbc, Daytona and FBC, Jacksonville?

Maybe you ought to wait for a while before at the leats questioning and at the most condemning what is happening in your own home church. Of course, you could always be Biblical and go to the church's leadership privately rather than coming here publically! But that's just my $0.02

 

Might I suggest that, if your Spiritual needs aren't being met at TRBC, rather than publicly tear down the church and its leadership, just go somewhere else. Go where you agree with the leadership and decisions. Go where they meet your spiritual needs.

If course, the best advice is for you to ask the leaders about the issues privately, but the decision to do that is entirely yours.

 

Dr. Jerry Falwell was a great man of God and I will miss him.:godisgood:

 

When a strong opinioned pastor serves one church for a long time, there are always problems with leadership. The succeeding pastor is gnerally selected by the departing pastor. It takes some time to get back to a local church polity in keeping with New Testament teachings.

I am not a fundamentalist, but still sorry to read about Mr. Falwell's passing on. He will be missed by many, including those who didn't share his radical leanings. He was true to his Lord and what he believed, and I think this is where we are to think of him. The Lord's blessing to his wife and family. I truly believe he will be missed.

Cheers,

Jim

 

It ain't primarily a Baptist thing, ya know.

There's the Robertsons, too. And then there's the Hagees.

I gather you're a member of Thomas Road, seeing as your address is Lynchburg ?

Not infering anything. Just asking.

 

Falwell

People that are brain washed don't know they are brain washed. Moonies love Dr. Sun, Mormons fervently follow their Apostle. Sincerity does not equate with being "right" or "godly". Very sincere Moslems wish to take your life. Most members glibly feel TRBC "works" ie the College, the Tele- Ministry, The Miller Home etc.etc. mean that the organization is "godly". Afraid not folks. I've been to Salt Lake City and the Mormons have done quite a bit, I've seen Scientologie's headquarters in Florida, or Angeles Temple in California. You know St. Peters in Rome is pretty neat as is Notre Dame. Point is, great works and accomplishments can flow from any organized group of people. There's plenty of colleges and seminary's I wouldn't wish to attend even though labled Christian. I'm really not knocking Mr. Falwell. But if TRBC/ Liberty is a family business it should be labled as such. I am knocking Church's/ Ministry's that receive tithes to the tune of millions of dollars in the name of God. Then accepts millions of hours of volunteer time, which is the essence of peoples lives. Also routinely ask for sacrifice to do "the work of God" then funnels them into a Family owned business. It does not matter one whit if the members want it that way, or think it correct. An example would be that Mormons are not unhappy with their church either, nor was the Branch Davidions, nor the Seventh Day Adventist, etc.etc. Just because you can persuade men to join and sacrifice, and be happy doing it dosen't make it godly. I don't know all this is the case with TRBC, but it is sure beginning to look that way. Please correct me, and post who's on the Board, their salaries, actual cost of the Gulfstream and annual cost of maintenance, who own's the stock and who owns the college? Mr. Falwell was very nice man and I've met him incidently several times. He was a great speaker and a great motivational organizer. But so are many other men that are Christian, and some that are not so Christian.

 

These are questions for the leadership of the TRBC or LU. A public forum isn't the place to get answers for these questions. Now, if all you want to do is vent, go right ahead (although I don't believe a public forum is the place to do that either). But, if you're honestly looking for answers, you might want to try asking those who have the answers.